Two countries on two wheels

Published 1:01 pm Thursday, October 2, 2008

A desire shared by a great many Americans is to set the day-to-day routine aside, take off and see the country on a long road trip. This trait seems particularly prevalent in motorcycle riders.

So, when the chance to take the trip of a lifetime – 9,000 miles in total – presented itself to my wife Trisha and I this past summer, we grabbed it.

I had just quit work to write a book when Trisha was laid off. We had originally planned to ride across Canada with a group of five friends, ship the bikes back from Portland, Maine and fly home. With no jobs to force a timetable, we decided to extend the trip by riding back through the United States, generally following the Lewis and Clark expedition trail.

North to Canada, eh?

On Aug. 10 our group departed at 6 a.m., following a largely sleepless night from anticipation, and headed for Revelstoke, British Columbia.

Road trips in cars are passive, but bikers live the trip. The unimpeded view is reinforced by smells, temperature changes and a constant sense of motion heightened by the wind in your face and a keen awareness of the subtleties of the road. Sometimes there is a downside, like the total downpour riding into Winnipeg that was comparable to riding through a car wash. Or Alberta’s grasshopper infestation of biblical proportions. These bugs packed a double whammy, turning the bikes into a sticky mess and creating a pretty good sting – even through leathers – at 70 mph.

After the phenomenal Canadian Rockies, ‘hoppers and a couple of museums (Drumheller dinosaurs and Royal Canadian Mounted Police), we left the vast prairies and headed into Canada’s lake country.

For the complete story, pick up a copy of this weeks Valley Record